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Law Enforcement and Government Agencies:

You probably have arrived at this page because some members of the local community have approached you with information that they have started a SERAT and they want to help you with your mission. These individuals will have described the SERAT program and how they can help your agency be more effective and how SERAT can add to the resources you have available to you. This web page can help supplement the information these fine people have already furnished to you.

S.E.R.A.T. stands for Squadron Emergency Response Assistance Team. We are part of the United States Power Squadrons. If you are not already familiar with The United States Power Squadrons, here is a short description of our organization. If you have a little more time, here is a longer story that goes back to the beginning of USPS. As you can see the USPS has a very proud history of service to the United States and the public at large over the last one hundred years.

As you read on the first link above, the USPS has three primary missions: Civic Service, Education for our members, and enjoying the friendship and camaraderie of our members. All three of these missions are equally important, without any priority given to any particular mission. SERAT falls under the Civic Service mission of the USPS.

The men and women that make up a SERAT unit are volunteers seeking the opportunity to make our waterways more safe and more fun. One of the first questions I was asked about SERAT from the United States Coast Guard was:

"Where do you get your funding?"

We are 100% volunteer all the way down to the fuel that we burn. This illustrates our commitment to our mission and the austerity of our members. Please recognize that if this volunteer team is called to render assistance and if at anytime a member of the SERAT feels they are uncomfortable with the assignment at hand they will not be compelled to assist.

We have required a certain level of training and competency from each of our SERAT members. We have required that all captains complete FEMA ICS-100 so that they are familiar with ICS and the NIMS. We have required that each vessel captain be required to achieve our own Piloting Grade or higher. This level of training is roughly equivalent to a USCG licensed 50 ton master. It is likely that most SERAT captains have training which exceeds that level, with many captains even able to use a sextant. All of our captains and crew are required to have First Aid and CPR training with an AED. There are no requirements for any EMT training. Our training focus is navigation and seamanship.

Our goal is to supplement existing

government resources with our own

Many fire and police departments contain individuals with EMT and Fire training, but lack water resources to respond to a water based emergency. This is where SERAT intends to dovetail into the existing resources and existing command structure. SERAT is able to furnish individuals with small boat handling skills and navigations skills along with their own personal vessels to assist a department responding to a water based emergency.

If a local government agency has one boat as their only resource for a water based emergency, and SERAT is able to furnish only one boat to that emergency as well, we have just doubled the resources available for that emergency including missions such as SAR. SERAT can also be the "eyes and ears" of any government agency. Rather then expend resources to move assets into a potentially remote area, it's possible that SERAT may already have assets in that area. Once SERAT is able to confirm an incident or the magnitude of the incident, government agencies can decide the most effective and most efficient way to deploy the appropriate assets, so that resource allocation is as effective and efficient as possible.

Boaters are an amazing and helpful community. After any mayday call is received, the USCG will typically issue an UMIB. In very congested areas, it is often that recreational boaters want to help or simply see what is happening. SERAT can help provide "crowd control" to establish a safety zone that will help the emergency responders get their resources to the vessel that is in distress.

A local Sheriff office or Fire Department may have a dive team and support boat for the dive team. While the support boat is servicing the divers, SERAT can patrol the area around the divers, preventing recreational craft from posing a safety threat.

SERAT is not limited to emergency incidents. SERAT can be very effective at planned events, allowing government agencies to redeploy their assets for more effective assistance and enforcement. The more assets involved, the better the chances for a successful outcome. SERAT is already involved in the local community. SERAT can help event organizers do safety planning, and make event organizers aware of ICS and NIMS.

There are many ways that SERAT can assist your organization. Please consider including your local SERAT in your own inter-agency cross training exercises. We are ready to Volunteer.